Bihar bandh takes a violent turn, NDA leaders detained

February 08, 2003 16:19 IST

Top NDA leaders, including BJP state president Nand Kishore Yadav, Samata Party convenor Vashistha Narain Singh and JD(U) legislature party leader Ganesh Prasad Yadav, were among over 400 activists of different political parties taken into custody for enforcing the dawn-to-dusk Patna bandh on Saturday.

The bandh by called several parties, including the NDA combine, to protest against the killing of an army jawan in an alleged encounter and spiralling crime in the state.

Yadav and other NDA leaders were taken to the DAV school camp jail in Danapur, Patna Superintendent of Police N Bhaskar told PTI.

The bandh evoked a mixed response with shops and business establishments in major thoroughfares downing their shutters but many in the residential areas remained open.

Violence marred the bandh with some people setting ablaze two buses and smashing windscreens of nearly a dozen vehicles forcing the police to use lathis and burst teargas shells to control the situation.

Traffic was very thin and most schools were closed as a precautionary measure while attendance in government and private offices and banks was affected.

Policemen and Rapid Action Force personnel patrolled the main streets of the state capital to ward off any untoward incident.

Patna Superintendent of Police O N Bhaskar said bandh supporters set on fire two private buses near the planetarium on Bailey Road, but the blaze was soon put off with the timely arrival of the police and the fire brigade.

He said IFDP supporters torched the buses when they were being taken to the Phulwari Sharif camp jail after being taken into preventive custody.

In other incidents, lathi-wielding NDA activists smashed the windscreens of nearly a dozen vehicles on Bailey Road, Kankarbagh and Chiraiyatand areas.

Official sources said police burst teargas shells and resorted to a lath charge in Chiraiyatand to disperse a violent mob that damaged few private vehicles.

There was heavy security at the Patna, Rajendra Nagar and Phulwari Sharif railway stations. There were no reports of obstruction of trains or damage to railway property so far, Additional Divisional Railway Manager (Danapur) A K Verma told PTI.

Patna is facing a series of bandhs and agitations since the late December killing of three youths in a fake police encounter at Ashiana Nagar and two others at Manjhaul in Begusarai district.